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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
FUTURE OF JOURNALISM IN THE BAHAMAS DISCUSSED: Grand Bahama Island - The Bahamas Weekly's David Mackey and Robbin Whachell (on laptop via Skype from Canada) meet with Lisa Moxey, US Embassy Media Specialist; Dr. Juliette Storr of the Bahamas Association of Journalists; Hugo Zarate, Assoc. Professor of Journalism/Communication, College of the Bahamas; and Bill Reader, Associate Professor, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University. AT Mackey Media Ltd. (February 2013)
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Bill Reader, associate professor at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University spent a week recently traveling within The Bahamas meeting with local journalists and media houses. His research trip was inspired and coordinated by Hugo Zárate, associate professor of journalism at The College of The Bahamas in Nassau. Mr. Zárate worked with the U.S. Embassy's media specialist, Elizabeth Moxye who handled the logistics of the trip.
Mr. Reader met with the following during his stay: Radio Abaco and the Bahamas Christian Network; The Eleutheran; Abaconian; TheBahamasWeekly.com; The Freeport News; The Tribune; Nassau Guardian; and Jones Communication Network.
The following is his report:
I recently spent a week visiting with journalists and journalism scholars in The Bahamas. The warm temperatures and sunny skies were certainly pleasant, but I did not spend my time walking beaches or swimming in turquoise waters. Instead, I was island-hopping to meet with all kinds of journalists who produce media in and for that small country — 10 media houses in all. It was very clear, after just one week, that community journalism really is the ONLY journalism in The Bahamas. And Bahamian journalists take their community connections very, very seriously. They may not have a lot of money, and some may have little or no formal training, but that may actually be a positive, as it forces them to be far less complacent and resistant to change compared to community journalists in some other parts of the world.
As a young, developing democracy, The Bahamas is remarkable in that it has such a rich media environment produced mostly by first- and second-generation “free” Bahamians. Because many of those in the media remember the independence movement four decades ago, some of the old political resentments may linger, but collectively, the journalism professionals I met at 10 different media stations are unified in their commitment to look forward, not backward.
The capital city of Nassau, for example, has a population of about 250,000, which is about half the size of the metropolitan region surrounding Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg has just one large-circulation daily newspaper; Nassau has (at least) three medium-circulation daily broadsheet newspapers and a popular “gossip” tabloid. The Patriot-News in Harrisburg is a typical regional paper, and aside from winning a recent Pulitzer Prize, is much like any other paper of its size in the U.S. In stark contrast, each Nassau newspaper has its own distinct character and traditions, and as such each has its own cultural and political niche in Nassau, niches defined less by proximity than by other socio-political differences. The Nassau papers compete constantly for content, advertising and talent within the same crowded city-island (and it was not unusual to meet a journalist who had spent some time working for a competing media house, for example — no-compete contracts just don’t work there).
All of that makes for a richer and more vibrant news culture in Nassau than is often found in similar-sized, or even much larger, one-newspaper cities in the U.S. And unlike those U.S. newspaper monopolies, the Nassau papers aren’t staffed largely by outsiders who had to learn the lay of the land — they are staffed mostly by Bahamians who know their city’s culture.
Although the Nassau newspapers do not publicly disclose their circulations (the competition can be that serious), there are enough indications to suggest that none would be considered a “big daily” by any stretch — rather, the biggest newspapers in The Bahamas are very much small- or mid-sized community newspapers, and as such are well connected to the communities they serve. Each is also part of a diversified media company, which allows for even more synergy as well as additional competition for the many little niches of Bahamian culture:
– The Journal, for example, is part of the Jones Communications Network, the proud media company built by Wendall K. Jones, one of the most well-known media executives in the country. Jones’s company also includes a radio station (Love 97FM) and JCN Channel 14. Jones has a particular passion for opinion journalism — editorials, columns, and analysis — and views civics education as crucial to training the next generation of Bahamian journalists if they are to become respected opinion leaders. Jones also has published a number of books that provide historical perspectives about The Bahamas.
– The Tribune newspaper has a wonderfully run-down, blue-collar newsroom that would make any ink-stained wretch nostalgic — in fact, the smell of the presses permeates the panel-lined lobby and the cluttered cubicles of the newsroom. We met in the small glass-walled office of managing editor Martin Biddle, who explained how his staff of mostly younger journalists daily uphold the company’s motto: “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master.” Just a few blocks away, the same company has an elegant, postmodern radio house that broadcasts five radio channels (including 100 JAMZ and Joy FM) covering a variety of musical genres, but including news from The Tribune newsroom as well as its own staff. The state-of-the-art radio house, with its hip design, high-tech studios, and smart marketing team, would be the envy of much larger, wealthier radio houses operating in larger cities in Canada or the U.S.
– The Nassau Guardian newspaper’s diversification includes a talk-radio channel and ownership of The Freeport News (the small daily serving Grand Bahamas island), as well as a sophisticated online presence that is being constantly improved by the mix of young and veteran journalists running the news divisions. Launched in 1844 as an abolitionist newspaper to counter the anti-emancipation newspaper, The Argus, The Guardian has had a rich history of challenges and triumphs in its 170 years; yet with its diversified approaches to journalism and strong online presence, the Guardian is not stuck in the past, just cognizant of it.
Each media company has its own website and each utilizes social media, especially Facebook, to connect with their audiences. Social media and mobile devices are as ubiquitous in The Bahamas as in most places of the U.S., with a variety of cellular and WiFi services that provide connectivity. In fact, WiFi is widely available throughout Nassau (many gathering places even have free WiFi that doesn’t require passcodes to log in, though finding them from among the many secured nodes can take considerable time). Hotels and some tourist spots still gouge guests with outrageous fees to access WiFi, but it seems as if the “real” parts of Nassau understand that WiFi is a crucial customer service option — even some gas stations have WiFi service. Despite the degree of digital connectivity in the city, ink-on-paper newspapers still seem to be popular, and local radio can be heard blaring from personal radios all through the city.
Simply put, the established news media in Nassau are very good at spotting and filling the various niches in a relatively small but highly diverse urban market. Legacy media remain popular, and exist alongside new media. Their community-focused approaches allow them to enjoy the kind of competitive success that would not be possible in a typical small city in the U.S. Many of the journalists I talked to agreed that the competition may be rough at times, but it makes them all better journalists. Unlike many of the glacial, bureaucratic government agencies they cover, the news media in The Bahamas is nimble and able to pounce quickly on new opportunities to enhance and promote their products. Even the largest media houses, such as ZNS, the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, has that kind of workaday, get-it-done attitude, with a strong focus on providing content of interest to the different cultural communities of The Bahamas.
Most of The Bahamas is made up of small, rural island communities. On the Family Islands (any Bahamian island other than Nassau’s New Providence), the news media are undeniably small, community-focused operations.
The free Abaconian newspaper, for example, is printed twice a month and delivers about 7,000 copies to more than 100 drop points across the most populous Abaco islands. The newspaper is free to pick up, and subscriptions are inexpensive ($20 a year on Abaco and $25 a year on other Bahamian islands; international rates are higher due to postage costs, but even the most expensive rate, to Europe, is less than $100 a year).
Relatively new editor Bradley Albury has no formal journalism training, so he is figuring it out as he goes, resulting in a number of clever, out-of-the-box ideas. For example, he said he makes sure to have some copies in his car so, if he spots a gathering of people as he drives around between editions, he can hop out and pass out free copies and, maybe, get a story for the next edition. If he gets a letter to the editor that contains profanity, Albury will not automatically reject the letter, but simply replace the offensive terms with bracketed euphemisms (you can imagine the more colorful language that was replaced with “[be quiet about things you don't know]“). Albury’s family recently purchased the long-published newspaper, and are building on the rapport and respect built over many years by the previous owners. “We updated the logo, but kept the staff and the general approach,” he explained. The all-local, community-focused approach to journalism is what has made the Abaconian successful thus far, so why change for change’s sake?
Not far from the Abaconian newspaper offices are the pair of small buildings that house Radio Abaco and the Bahamas Christian Network television station. The broadcasting company was started in the 1990s by the indomitable Silbert Mills, a retired pilot and harbor manager who is a self-taught weather journalist and, today, an award-winning broadcast entrepreneur and community leader. Starting with about $10,000 in startup expenses and a seemingly insatiable desire to learn and master information technology, Mills started the radio station primarily to provide up-to-date, localized weather information for boaters sailing Bahamian seas. Radio Abaco now is the primary source of entertainment and broadcast news on the island. Building on the same low-cost, hard-work formula that built Radio Abaco, and embracing his other role as a Christian minister, Mills branched out in the mid-2000s to develop a religious TV channel for The Bahamas; The Bahamas Christian Network is run from a modest studio that Mills built himself and runs with minimal staffing, and features informative talk shows, local and national news, regional and international feeds of other religious programming, and, of course, Mills’ own TV weather reports, animated map and all.
The communities of Eleuthera Island are even smaller than those on Abaco, and are covered by the monthly Eleutheran newspaper. The paper was started in 2008 by a wife-and-husband team, Elizabeth and V.J. Bryan, and is still run out of their Governor’s Harbor home. The newspaper relies on volunteers to provide content and tips from across the island, according to “Liz” Bryan, co-owner and managing editor. Bryan used her marketing experience from working in Nassau to return to her family’s home island to start the new business, and the newspaper’s mission statement makes her hometown roots crystal clear: “… heightening the profile of the island, who we are, and what we are doing, to a global audience.” Their media company, called Spice Media Group, also handles advertising and marketing projects, and produces a bi-annual magazine aimed more for tourists and seasonal residents. The monthly newspaper’s 3,000 copies are distributed via drop points all along the long, thin island’s one main road, and the newspaper has a website and social-media channels that are used to relay breaking news to the community between print editions. Printing for the family-island newspapers is expensive — like many small publications in The Bahamas, The Eleutheran is printed in Florida and flown in, making it far more expensive than having a similar publication printed in the rural U.S. But Bryan said that her community continues to tell her that it prefers the printed newspaper and magazines to the website; she hopes to someday increase the frequency of the printed newspaper as a result.
Freeport is The Bahamas’ second-largest city, but with a population below 30,000 is very much a small town.
New media are on the rise, of course. A number of online-only news sites operate in The Bahamas, including TheBahamasWeekly.com, produced out of a small studio/workroom/office/meeting room in Freeport. Co-founder and webmaster David Mackey runs the site from wherever he happens to be, but mostly from the Freeport office; co-founder and editor Robbin Whachell handles the content side from her home in Canada. Even though most of the established, legacy media in The Bahamas also have websites, TheBahamasweekly.com has found its own niche in that crowded online market, and they are fast and quick adopters of new social media forms, all to keep the Bahamian diaspora connected with their home culture.
The daily Freeport News (owned by The Guardian, as mentioned above), provides a daily mix of local and national/international news, as well as a special obituaries section every Thursday. It is perhaps the most typical “community daily” in the nation, with the same mix of local news and community announcements typical of small-circulation dailies in rural U.S. communities, and with a distinctly Bahamian flavor.
That is perhaps best exemplified by the amount of “micronews” published by The Freeport News. As with the bigger dailies in Nassau, obituaries are a big, big deal for The Freeport News, and Thursday is the big day for daily newspapers to deliver pull-out sections filled with paid obituaries. John Fleet, managing editor of The Freeport News, said when he first came to The Bahamas from his native England, he was surprised about a distinctly Bahamian social custom in Nassau — someone riding on a jitney (small public bus) would read the obits aloud for the other passengers, who would listen intently and respond with emotional outbursts, many not unlike those heard in a church service. Thursday is the biggest edition of the week for the newspaper, largely because of the obituaries section. Daily newspapers make a lot of money on “obituary day,” but only because they provide their communities with information that the community clearly wants and appreciates enough to buy. The primary purpose of the obit sections is to provide a community service, and doing so is, as a result, profitable to the media houses.
Doing community journalism in The Bahamas clearly requires a very strong understanding of Bahamian culture first and foremost. That kind of “community first, journalism second” approach may wrinkle the noses of media elitists, but it clearly works in The Bahamas, and is what allows so many media houses to operate and grow in the small, media-dense country.
I look forward to keeping in touch with many (if not all) of the journalists I met on that research trip, and also contacting and communicating with others we did not have time to meet in our short week of site visits. As someone who believes strongly in the power of community journalism to effect positive change, I was encourage to see so much innovation, ingenuity, and passion for community journalism in The Bahamas. It is a country that appreciates the importance of community life, personal connections, and a “can-do” attitude, one that runs more on personal rapport, it seems, than on formal credentials. The resulting journalistic work may not be as polished or “professional” as some might like (including many of the journalists themselves — every one we talked to made it clear they want to try to do better). But that is perhaps its greatest strength — the Bahamian news media are distinctly Bahamian, and they are developing along with the many communities they serve in a distinctly Bahamian way.
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© Copyright 2013 by thebahamasweekly.com
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